Overthrow preventing mechanism



Oct. 7, 1969 H. SOUPENNE 3,471,085

OVERTHROW PREVENTING MECHANISM Filed March 11, 1968 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Oct. 7, 1969 H. SOUPENNE OVERTHROW PREVENTING MECHANISM 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed larch 11, 1968 Int. Cl. G068 25/00, 15/42 US. (:1. 235-131 Claims 4 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Device for the resetting to zero of indicating mechanisms having drums carrying digits, controlled by the rotation of an axle carrying the drums after raising of the shaft carrying pinions which serve to register the amount transferred, said mechanism being characterized in that 'each pinion has a circular reinforcement Wall provided with four equidistant embossments or studs which abut a fixed rod parallel to the axle carrying the pinions when said axle israised at the beginning of the resetting operation -=U i ed States Patent and escape from said rod at the end of said resetting operation so as to allow the normal functioning of the mechanism when said axle is reset to its previous position, the drums then displaying the digit 9.

Indicating mechanisms, particularly provided for liquid volumes and prices thereof are known, such as those equipping gas-station pumps, and also the subsidiary mechanisms designed in a similar way to predetermine those quantities and eventually to print them.

The drums which carry the digits of such indicating mechanisms have to be reset to zero, and various known devices are provided to obtain this result. This resetting to zero has to be performed through low work means, either to relieve the work of the user, or to combine those means with automatic resetting systems taking their energy from the measuring mechanism, without affecting the accuracy of the measure. Moreover, said resetting must be made in only one operation which is not realized with conventional mechanisms in which a drum may accidently overpass the digit 0 if it has received too strong an impulse. It then becomes necessary to make a supplementary operation to obtain the resetting to zero in a convenient way.

The present invention has for its object the resetting to zero of the drums with a minimum of work, by simpler and more certain means than the presently known ones.

It consists essentially in providing blocking means for each drum, said blocking means acting at the moment when the digit 9 of a particular drum appears on the totalizator, and ceasing to act when all the drums register 9 so that all the drums simultaneously move to show the digit 0. After the rotation of the drive shaft during the resetting operation ends the operation continues in the same manner as in the course of normal counting, when the counter being at the maximum of its counting capacity, for example 9 999, goes back to 0 000.

The characteristics of the invention will be clear from the following description having reference to the accompanying drawings which show an illustrative but not limitative embodiment of the present invention and in which:

'FIG. 1 is a partial longitudinal cross section of the device of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a section taken along line 11-11 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a section taken along line IHIII of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a diagrammatic elevation corresponding to FIG. 2 and illustrating a characteristic position of some parts of the device.

According to FIG. 1 the device comprises a plurality of 3,471,085 Patented Oct. 7, 1969 indicating drums 1, 1a Ineach one comprising a hub 2 rotatable on a shaft 3. The drums 1 to In include at the periphery thereof digits 4 numbered 0 to 9, said digits are provided to appear through a window 5 of a mask 6 diagrammatically illustrated in FIG. 3. The hubs 2 of each drum are connected to the shaft 3 by means of ratchets 7 which may as shown in FIG. 2 penetrate a longitudinal slot 8 provided in the shaft 3, that is to say the ratchets 7 constitute, so to speak, a free wheel mechanism allowing said drums to turn freely on the shaft 3 when they are driven in the direction designated by the arrow 1, (FIG. 2) make it possible to drive said drums 1 to In when the shaft 3 is itself driven in the direction of the arrow f for example by means of a handle 9.

On one of their sides, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the drums are rigidly connected to a ring 10 hereinafter called locking member or circle. This ring 10 is provided with two teeth 11 and 12 separated by a space 13. The drawing shows, and more particularly in FIG. 1 that said two teeth 11 and 12 protrude laterally with respect to the ring 10.

On the other side of the drums 1 to 1n there is provided a gear -14, having teeth 15 which extend to a circumference of a radius smaller than the radius of the lockingcircle 10.

In addition to the drums 1 to 1m described in the preceding, the shaft 3 carries a cam 17, see FIGS. 1 and 3. Said cam 17 is circular as shown on FIG. 3, but is provided with a stop 17a and a ramp 17b, to control a catch 18 forming a part of one of the wings 19 of a stirruppiece, designated as a whole by the number 20 and comprising another Wing 19a (FIG. 1). The stirrup-piece 20, is mounted on an axle 21 having bearings not shown and in turn supports between the wings 19 and 190, an axle 22 extending parallel to the shaft 3. The axle 22 supports rotatable pinions 23 which serve to register the amount carried transfer and are hereinafter called transfer pinions. Said pinions include a gear 24 normally engaging with the gears 14 of the drums, and a gear 24a having the same number of teeth as gear 24 from which it is separated by a circular reinforcement wall 25. The top of the teeth of the gear 24 extend around a circumference of a smaller radius than the circumference of the top of the teeth of the gear 24a. Moreover, the transfer pinions 23 comprise a third gear 24b which is constituted by an extension of alternate teeth of the gear 24a. The gear 24b is disposed in the same plane as the one passing through the locking circle 10, while the gear 24a extends in the plane passing through the protruding part of the teeth 11 and 12 of said locking circle 10. The drawing also shows that the circular wall 25 is provided on the periphery thereof with embossments 16, being for example four in number, as shown in FIG. 3.

When a drum turns, two teeth of gear 24b, being here the teeth 24b and 24b (FIG. 2), bear on the periphery of the locking circle '10, preventing the transfer pinion 23 from rotating, said pinion 23 being then locked by the locking circle 10. When one of the drums, drum 1 for example, being the drum of the units, has turned enough, then one of the teeth of the gear 24a: is engaged by one of the teeth 11 or 12, which caused transfer pinion 23 to turn, a tooth 24b of said pinion comes then into space 13 so that the pinion 23 is turned up to the moment when two new teeth of the gear 24b come to bear upon the locking circle 10.

The movement of the transfer pinion 23 is obviously transmitted by the gear 24 to the gear 14 of the drum 1a which turns a measure corresponding to one unit that is to say the next higher digit of this pinion is brought to appear in front of the corresponding window 5.

The working here above described is produced when the catch 18 is in the bottom of the notch of the cam 17.

a mechanism not shown but indicated by a pinion 26 (FIG. 1) driving the gear 14 of the first drum.

' As shown in FIG. 4, the drive of gears 14 -by means of the teeth 15 and the gear 24 of the forward pinions 23 may cease as soon as the forward pinions 23 are raised when the axle 22, initially at the distance A from the axis of the shaft 3, is brought to a distance B from the axis of said shaft 3. However, in this case, one of the teeth of the gear 24b may still bear on the locking circle 10 to prevent an hazardous rotation of the forward pinions 23 (see FIG. 4).

The raising of the forward pinions 23 by raising axle 22 is accomplished by the cam 17 which is chosen in such a manner that, when the mechanism is in its normal working position, that is to say when the drums are driven by the pinion 26, the distance between the axle 22 and the axis of the shaft 3 is equal to A, which produces an ingear position of the gears, especially of gears 24 and 14 and that this distance is brought to a measure B when the shaft 3 is positively driven by handle 9 so as to actuate the cam 17 to bring the catch 18 onto the circular bearing of said cam thus raising axle 22 to position 22w.

In addition the device further includes fixed abutments facing each forward pinion 23. Such abutments are, for example, constituted by a rod 27 carried by supporting means 28 and 28a. The setting of the rod 27 is determined in order to permit the forward pinions 23 to turn freely when their supporting axle 22 is at distance A (FIG. 1) from the axis of the shaft 3 which is the case represented in FIG. 2, but that the embossments 16 will abut said rod 17 when the pinions 23 are raised by raising axle 22 to the position 22a, i.e., distance B from the axis of the shaft 3.

In such circumstances, when the mechanism has been used to totalize a flow output, for example, and it becomes necessary to reset the drums to zero, one proceeds as follows:

By means of the operating handle 9, the shaft 3 is actuated to rotate 360 in the direction of the arrow f (FIG. 2), that is to say in the direction by which said shaft will drive the drums 1 to In by their ratchets 7, said direction corresponding to the one in which the drums are driven during the counting operation. First of all, the ramp 17b of the cam 17 causes the catch 18 to raise and consequently, the stirrup-piece 20 pivots around the axle 21 so that the axle 22 is brought to position 22a as is shown in FIGS. 1 and 4 and the distance between said axle 22 and the axis of the shaft 3 is then B. In this way, the gears 24 of the transfer pinions 23 do not engage the teeth 15 of gears 14, but one of the teeth of the gear 24b bearing on the locking circle 10 as in FIG. 4 prevents the rotation of said forward pinions 23. The various drums 1 to In are thus driven without being braked when their ratchet 7 comes in the slot 8 of the shaft 3 during the rotation of said shaft.

As the movement transmitted to the shaft 3 by the handle 9 or by any other mechanism, may be relatively fast and the inertia of the drums 1 to In being obviously greater than zero, it could happen that said drums would go on turning when said handle 9 has completed 360, so that a digit other than the digit of each drum would appear in front of the windows 5. However, this event can not happen in the case of the present invention because, when the teeth 11 and 12 of the locking circle 10 of one of the drums engage a tooth 24b of the corresponding transfer pinion 23, said pinion can turn only by a limited amount, that is up to the moment when one of the embossments 16 comes against the rod 27, thereby blocking the rotation of both the forward pinion and the considered drum. As the slot 8 of the shaft 3' is rectilinear, the same result occurs at the same angular position of each drum 1 to In and it is made so that said result occurs when the digit 9 of each drum appears in the window and when the shaft 3 has been turned by W of one turn or 324.

- During the last tenth of the turn of shaft 3, the catch '18 (FIG. 3) engages stop 17a of the cam 17 which brings the axle 22 to its previous position at which said axle is at a distance A from the shaft 3, and all the drums then pass from the digit 9 to the digit 0, said rotation being followed by a simultaneous rotation all of the forward pinions 23 which are then freed from the rod 27 in the very same way as occurs when said mechanism has come to the maximum of its counting capacity and thus passes again automatically to zero.

While there has been described and illustrated an embodiment of the invention, it is to be understood that it is not intended to be restricted solely thereto but it is intended to cover all modifications thereof which would be apparent to one skilled in the art which come within the spiritof the invention.

I claim:

1. A totalizating mechanism having a plurality of indicating digital drums arranged in series on a main shaft and means for positively rotating said drums on said shaft to indicate a series of progressively increasing values including means for resetting said drums to indicate zero which comprises,

ratchet means allowing said drums to rotate freely in one direction on the main shaft and to be positively driven by the main shaft when the shaft is driven in the same direction,

a locking circle rotatable with each drum and having teeth-engaging means at only one location on the periphery thereof,

a gear rotatable with each drum,

an axle having its axis parallel to the axis of the main shaft,

a plurality of interconnecting pinions rotatably mounted on said axle, each pinion having a plurality of sets of gear teeth which engage respectively with the teeth of the rotatable gear and with the locking circle of the preceding drum to prevent rotation of said pinion except when said pinion engages said teeth-engaging means at the one location and a plurality of embossments located about the periphery of each of said pinions,

means for positively rotating the main shaft for resetting the drums to zero,

means operable by said means for rotating the main shaft for displacing the axle with respect to the main shaft while maintaining the parallel relationship therebetween whereby each interconnecting pinion will be disengaged from the associated rotatable gear while continuing to engage the locking circle of a preceding drum to prevent rotation of said pinion except when said opinion engages said teeth-engaging means at the one location of said locking circle,

fixed abutment means located to permit rotation of said pinions when said pinions are engaged with the rotatable gears of the drums, and to prevent rotation of said pinions by obstructing movement of said embossments when said axle is displaced, said axle displacing means being operable to return the axle to its original position parallel to the main shaft when the digital drums have been reset to zero.

2. A totalizating mechanism as claimed in claim 1, and further comprising means for viewing only one number on each digital drum at a time and in which said fixed abutment means abut the embossments of said pinions when the teeth-engaging means of said locking circle engage the associated set of gear teeth of said pinion only when the figure 9 on the digital drum can be viewed in said viewing means.

3. A totalizating mechanism as claimed in claim 1 in which the means for displacing the axle with respect to the main shaft comprise a cam element secured to said main shaft and means operable by said cam for displacing said axle while maintaining a parallel relationship with said main shaft when said main shaft is positively driven.

5 6 4. A totalizating mechanism as claimed in claim 1, 2,384,220 9/ 1945 Vroom 235131 X wherein the fixed abutment means comprises a rod dis- 2,444,570 7/1948 Lawrence et a1. 235144 X posed in parallel relation to the axis for said pinions. 2,494,955 1/1950 Mayer et a1. 235--131 References Cited 5 RICHARD B. WILKINSON, Primary Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS S. A. WAL, Assistant Examiner 2,358,780 9/1944 Vroom 235-144 U s CL X 2,382,708 8/1945 Graydon et a1 235131 235-144 

